10 ❙ EggIndustry
ANIMAL AGRICULTURE
Animal housing is 'hermetically sealed'
Biosecurity is frequently cited as a reason for keeping visitors off of poultry and swine farms. Outbreaks
of avian influenza and porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED)
virus during the past few years reinforce the importance
of biosecurity. But should transparency be completely sacrificed for biosecurity?
tor viewing areas. The air going into the animal buildings
is filtered to remove contaminants that visitors could have
brought with them.
The swine building was a real challenge, Corbett said,
but one successfully met. "We had a half-million visitors
and didn't have PEDv," he said. The farm took special
precautions, as did other U.S. swine operations, with trucks
bringing feed to the hogs, but they did nothing special with
the visitors.
"ONE OF THE BRIGHT
spots for us is that
virtually all of our
visitors come without
an agenda."
Gary Corbett, CEO, Fair Oaks Farms
Corbett said that Fair Oaks will partner with Rose
Acres Farms, which will site a cage-free laying hen facility.
Visitors will go through the middle of the house in an enclosed glass viewing area. The air going into the birds will
be filtered in a similar manner as for hogs.
The dairy and swine operations as well as the coming
layer facility, are commercially viable, large-scale facilities.
There are extra building and equipment costs to accomplish
the biosecurity level needed to accommodate daily visitors,
but every other aspect of the farm is focused on current
large-scale best industry practices; this is a real, working,
economically viable farm.
Gary Corbett, CEO, Fair Oaks Farms, explained that the
original plan for inviting the public onto a large-scale dairy
farm was a little different than how it has turned out.
"When we first envisioned this, we were going to have a
little more contact, not petting zoo-like, but more interaction
with the animals," he said. "But, 9/11 and hoof and mouth
put an end to that. We don't allow any direct contact between our visitors and the farm workers and our animals."
Corbett explained that the animal housing areas of the
exhibition buildings are hermetically sealed from the visi-
Open to the public 361 days a year
"We are open 361 days a year, and you have to bring
your 'A' game every day," Corbett said. "Everyone is a
movie producer now, but we think this makes us better."
It could be overwhelming for visitors to see the scale of
a modern farm. Most people have never seen a dairy building that is nearly a quarter-mile long or a building with
3,000 sows and tens of thousands of piglets. But, Corbett
explained, "Our guests are just really good people."
www.WATTAgNet.com ❙ August 2016

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